site.btaNational Museum of Military History Presents Exhibition on Bulgaria's Friends and Foes

On November 11, Saturday, in the National Maritime Museum (NMM) in Varna, Defence Minister Todor Tagarev will open the Enemy/Friend exhibition. The exhibition was the exhibition prepared by the National Museum of Military History, of which the NMM is a subsidiary, and reveals the complex puzzle of the military and political relations between Bulgaria and three countries that played a key role in the history of the Third Bulgarian State - Turkiye, Russia and Germany.

The attitude of the modern Bulgarian towards these countries is usually polar and emotionally saturated, due to the long and complex history. Tracing the period between Liberation and World War II, when inter-state relations went from friendly to hostile and vice versa, the exhibition challenges visitors to escape from stereotypes in thinking and create their own interpretation of history, asking whether eternal friends and enemies can exist on the international stage.

Three emblematic stories related to events and people whose destinies are marked by interstate relations illustrate the multi-layered theme on a personal, public and state level.

The story of Captain Atanas Atanasov and Captain Hassan Bey Shukri presents the meeting of the commanders who shot at each other during the capture of the Edirne Fortress, which took place not in an atmosphere of hostility, but in an atmosphere of tolerance and respect for the adversary's dignity. The long-term construction and the change in the name of the St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral after the bombing of Varna by a Russian squadron during the First World War evidences the changing attitude towards Russie through the years. And the story of Colonel Dimitar Mladenov presents the difficult moments experienced by a Bulgarian division in the critical days after the reorientation of Bulgaria during the Second World War, when Germany turned from an ally into an enemy.